Getting out of the way

In 2016, I worked with six Syrian refugees who were volunteering with Red Cross in the refugee camp where they lived in northern Greece. It was super simple photography project, where they used disposable cameras to document camp life.

What came back was just superb, the intimate sharing could never be rendered by a photographer who didn’t live there, and the composition of people who do not take photos for a living was amazing.

“They’re losing their young lives. They should be at school, living somewhere safe. Not it Syria where there are bombs and fighting every day. And not here in this camp where there are snakes and nothing to do.” Saleh Barakat / IFRC ~ feature image.

Providing a platform for people to tell their own story is my ultimate objective. Getting out of the way and letting people connect with the audience is the best path to real engagement between the two.

Issa Alkehdar / IFRC “I climbed up onto the shaded area and tried to take a picture of the whole camp. You would have to climb a mountain to see how big the whole camp is.”

Mohamad Ghozlan / IFRC “This little guy spent a long time trying to fill up his bottle. He was very diligent, wanting to get it right to the very top.”

Khadija Toghaji / IFRC “This woman is about 70 years old, and she lives here in the camp by herself.”

Issa Alkehdar / IFRC “This little girl was helping her mum carry water from the taps to her tent. The camp is divided into sections and there are taps for each section. She carted the water from about 200 meters away, stopping every few meters to take a break.”